In the middle of rural China, very far from anything of note, a massive and recently built statue has been flurrying across Asian news. The structure in question is a whopping rendering of our old mate – Mao Zedong, smack bang in the middle of nothing at all.

Local farmers and entrepreneurs of the village of Zhu, Tongxu County, Henan, clubbed together to fund the construction, giving them a smattering of kudos throughout the great land of China.

Construction, costing around $460,000, ended in December 2015. Unfortunately, this gold coloured behemoth, standing (well, sitting) in the barren fields, has already been torn down.

According to Chinese media, the 36-metre-tall construction had not been officially approved. The order came down from on high to smash the fella to bits.

It seems a shame, but at the same time, Mao Zedong was a megalomaniacal sadist, so I’m not sure everyone in China wants to remember his face. Although China’s current President Xi Jinping did commend Mao as a “great figure” he also admitted that he had made some mistakes – the mother of all understatements.

The statue’s placement in the Henan region also turned some heads whilst simultaneously raising eyebrows. The area was the epicentre of major famines during Zedong’s reign, around 3 million people in Henan are thought to have fallen foul to hunger.

Across China, during the 1950’s, an estimated 40 million humans died of malnutrition; this was directly thanks to Zedong’s misplaced, mistimed and misdirected policies, or, as he called it, the “Great Leap Forward.”

Chinese commenters on Weibo (their version of Facebook) were unimpressed with the statue. There are plenty of Chinese residents who are wading knee-deep through poverty, the money could have certainly been better spent elsewhere.

“Mega Mao”, as the statue has been dubbed, should be a lesson to all of you: don’t build massive replicas of psychopaths unless you have the correct permissions; preferably in triplicate.

Below are more images of the incredibly out of place beast, and if you’re in the market for more examples of the Chinese wasting money, here are some worthy links to click on: